Ceiling, floor, and expectations for the Atlanta Hawks

Despite losing in the first round this past season, the Atlanta Hawks showed some encouraging signs moving into this upcoming season. After all, Quin Snyder took over late in the season in an attempt to resurrect a sinking ship. Snyder could have let Joe Prunty remain the interim head coach and take over the following season. However, Snyder took the challenge head-on and led the Hawks to a competitive series vs the Boston Celtics. Atlanta played its heart out and nearly pushed it to a seventh game.

Nevertheless, Atlanta has to be feeling good going into this season. The players know what they are getting from Synder and seem to have a positive relationship with their head coach. With Trae Young attempting to down the “coach killer” narrative, Synder must build a positive relationship with the Hawks star. It’s not just Young, however, every player that did exit interviews after the season had a positive review of Snyder. While Snyder did breed new life into the Hawks players and even fans for that matter, he still had a losing record of 10-11 in the 21 games he coached for Atlanta.

Regardless it is a small sample size and not indicative of what will transpire this season. With that said, what can we expect from a full year under Snyder? Atlanta has a lot of positive momentum built up from their series against the Celtics, but how can they apply it to this season? For the past two seasons, the Hawks have been fighting in the play-in tournament. Can the Hawks make a run at a top-six seed for the second time since 2021? A lot of questions are to be asked about this year’s Hawks team, but what are the expectations going to be like and how high can the Hawks soar in 2023-2024?